


it's nice to have a friend

by notsafeforowls



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: 5 Times, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 23:43:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20497331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsafeforowls/pseuds/notsafeforowls
Summary: Hanging out on the beach, watching a movie together, celebrating a birthday, huddling for warmth, and road-tripping halfway across the country are all things that you do with a friend.Or, five times Zari and Nate are definitely just friends, and the first time Zari realises that she might want more.





	it's nice to have a friend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MusicalWheaten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalWheaten/gifts).

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

**one** (Aruba, 2018)

Gideon makes the best fruit salads if you bring her fresh ingredients. _And _she’s even generous enough to fabricate a nice little refrigerated dish for them if you ask nicely. And if you ask _really _nicely, she even makes you even more fruit until it takes you all day to slowly pick at the fruit salad.

Unless, Zari decided as she finally gives up, you eat too much pineapple early on and it starts to hurt your stomach.

There’s no sign of Wally or Mick on the narrow section of the beach that the team has been hanging around on for the last couple of days. Zari hasn’t seen Ray for a while either – he’d mentioned something about sightseeing and tried to bribe Nate from his towel with promises of a museum, and that had failed miserably – and Sara’s probably getting laid.

Which leaves Nate, who’s sprawled out on his beach towel with his hat covering most of his face. Possibly asleep.

“You’re going to burn.” Zari waits for a few seconds after she speaks, watching Nate’s chest rise and fall. There’s no reply. “Hey!”

He’s definitely asleep then.

She throws the nearest bottle of sunscreen – left behind by Sara when she ditched the team to sneak away with Ava – at Nate hard enough that she hears it thud when it lands on his chest. He starts awake, grabbing the sunscreen and staring at it in confusion as he pushes up his sunglasses.

“What?” he asks, more to the sunscreen than to Zari.

“You’re going to burn,” she says as slowly as possible. The sun has already turned him a bit red, so maybe he’s already starting to burn. “I know you’re sad about Amaya, but I don’t think sleeping in the sun and burning yourself to a crisp is going to help.”

Nate sighs, sitting up and brushing the sand from his back and arms. He shuffles a few feet across the sand until he can sit under Zari’s umbrella, carefully tucked into the shaded area. Up close, Zari can see the tan lines around the top of his shorts and where his watch was until it got too hot in the sun. There are freckles being brought out by the sun, spreading across his nose and cheeks. And his chest.

“Hey,” Zari says awkwardly, pushing her fruit salad towards Nate, hoping that he gets the message instead of making her ask him if he wants some.

Nate picks at a few bits of the pineapple, his eyes on the water.

“I miss her, too,” Zari says into the quiet. The only thing she can hear is the sound of the waves against the sand and the wind, which is picking up. They’ll have to leave soon. The weather’s changing, and some part of Zari wonders if that’s because Amaya’s gone – not _gone_ gone like her parents or Behrad or Rip, but away to a good life, which is somehow better and worse – or just because no one thought to check the weather forecast. She pats Nate on the shoulder much harder than necessary. He’s sun-warm and his skin feels hot; from his wince, he’s definitely managed to get himself burned. “What do you say we watch Groundhog Day the next time we have some downtime? You’ve been telling me that I should watch it for months.”

Since her own Groundhog Day and, in spite of Zari not wanting to go anywhere near another time loop in any shape or form, she’s curious about it. And if it stops Nate sitting around looking like a kicked puppy, she’ll sit through stupid time loop movies as many times as Nate will.

And from the way that Nate suddenly perks up, she gets the feeling that it’s going to be a lot of times.

**two** (Sydney, 1999/2000)

“The only thing I don’t get,” Zari says as she stretches out on the bed, prodding at Nate’s thigh with her foot, “is what, exactly, is the definition of a good person in this movie? I mean, yeah, he’s an asshole in the beginning of the movie, but even when he tried to do everything right, he still didn’t get out of the loop.”

The VHS player makes an alarming noise as Nate rewinds it. He’s perched on the end of the bed, so close to the edge that he nearly slides off before he pushes her foot away, laughing.

They’re hanging out in a hotel, supposedly waiting for these firefly creatures that will apparently be seen here in the next few hours. Zari thinks that it’s more likely that the kids didn’t want to miss the new millennium and lied to their parents to explain why they got back to the hotel room so late. But, hey, chance to see in a millennium that she was born ten years into, who can say no to that? A third of the bed is taken up by the huge pile of plates and bowls of food that they’ve ordered from room service.

“That’s because he was trying,” Nate explains. He pokes at the buttons on the front of the VCR. “When you stop having an ulterior motive, that’s when the magic happens. That’s when you get everything you’ve ever wanted. But if you go around, doing things just because you think that they’ll get you what you want, you’re never going to get anywhere.”

Zari’s struck by a sudden thought. The conversation in the loop. Nate standing in front of her in that corridor, explaining that the character lived the loop over and over again until he learned to be a better person. Until he learned to care.

“Do you watch this movie a lot?”

Nate looks embarrassed as he scrambles up the bed to sit beside her, shoving a few more of the cushions behind him until he’s comfortable. “Uh, maybe once a month? Usually more than once because it’s an even better movie if you watch it twice in a row. Why?”

“I think Gideon pays too much attention to what you’re doing.” Zari nudges at Nate’s shoulder. “This time, you’re allowed to point out all the background things I missed the first time and I won’t hit you with the remote.”

Nate rubs at his bruised shoulder. “Wow, I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all night.”

“I’ve said nice things about the movie!”

“And hit me with the remote. And complained about my choice of room service. And threatened to smother me with a pillow if I said the lines along with the characters again.”

Zari hands him a bowl of half-melted ice cream. “Eat up and shut up.”

And if Zari says the opening lines of the movie along with the characters, well, Nate can’t judge her because he does it as well.

She barely notices the fireworks outside.

**three** (Waverider, Temporal Zone, ????)

Of all the things that Zari expects to find in the ship’s galley when she gets up for a 2AM snack, a cake isn’t one of them. And yet here it is. Sitting in the middle of the counter like it’s waiting for someone to find it. Zari prods at it with the tip of a knife, just in case it’s a trap of some sort. Nothing happens, other than the tip of the knife sinks into the peach-coloured frosting.

“Do you like it?”

It takes all of Zari’s self-control to drop the knife before she accidentally stabs Nate, who’s standing a few feet away with his hands raised.

“What the hell, Nate?” she asks, resisting the urge to hit him in the face with the damn cake.

“It’s your birthday? Well, it would be your birthday if we were still in 2019 instead of being on the ship and in the Temporal Zone.” Nate wrings his hands. “Did you not want anyone to know?”

“I forgot.” She’s not sure when the last time she celebrated her birthday was. Before her family died, yes, but Zari’s sure it was long before then as well. Maybe even before they were sent to the ghetto district. It’s not as if she’s had very much to celebrate since then. “You made this for me?”

“Me and Gideon,” Nate says, gesturing towards the ceiling. “I was going to tell Ray about it tomorrow morning – this morning,” he corrects himself, “and that’s why I baked it tonight.”

“Doctor Heywood was planning a surprise party,” Gideon supplies.

“Thanks, Gideon, I think she realised that.”

Zari looks between Nate and the cake. “You _baked_ this for me?” Zari’s always assumed that Nate falls into the Sara Lance category of _could set pasta on fire while boiling it_ but apparently, he can bake and ice cakes.

“My mom taught me when I was a kid. She wouldn’t let me near knives, but baking was okay.”

“Can I try it?”

Nate picks up the knife she had almost stabbed him with and offers it to her. “Sure, but you need to light the candles first.”

“Candles?” Zari asks but the words are hardly out of her mouth before Nate whips out a set of pale blue candles.

Nate lights them, they glow a strange blue colour that she’s sure is due to some sort of future tech that Gideon’s added. Zari’s about to ask Gideon what makes them that colour when she realises that, under that blue light, she can see something written on the cake in what is unmistakably Nate’s writing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZARI!!!

“Oh,” Zari whispers. “It’s…”

She’s not going to cry. She is _definitely_ not going to cry. But there’s just something about standing in the galley, Nate by her side, looking down at the first birthday cake she’s had since she was a child, seeing those words written on it so carefully, that makes her heart hurt. It’s not in a bad way, though. It’s in that strange way that makes her think of how much of a home this ship has become.

Zari doesn’t make a wish as she leans forward and blows the candles out. She just closes her eyes and focuses on that feeling.

There’s a small click, as if someone is taking a photo, but Zari doesn’t have the heart to tell Gideon to mind her own business for a while.

“It’s a peaches and cream cake,” Nate explains when Zari picks up the knife to cut the cake. “I know you like both so it was a bit of a guess. It was that or a giant doughnut cake. I thought you might like a change.”

Zari carefully cuts two slices from the cake and nudges one towards Nate. “I love it.”

“You haven’t even tasted it.”

She swipes her finger through the frosting, catching a few of the tiny pieces of peach, and licks the frosting from her fingers. It’s just sweet enough without the cream or peach overpowering the other main flavour. Zari’s sure that the cake itself will be even better. “I love it.”

**four** (Nevada, 1987)

Zari wants a drink of something cold, preferably with so many ice cubes that it either feels like her water is refilling itself or that her soda ends up half water. It’s too hot, and the promise of rain soon isn’t helping. The humidity is driving her to despair. It feels like everything is red hot and sticky.

And the mission isn’t helping. There’s no leprechaun in Las Vegas, just some people counting cards and using some future tech they found in someone’s attic, and a hell of a lot of mobsters. Now she and Nate must get back across the country to the ship. That would suck anyway, but it’s worse in the heat, and even worse with Nate having spent an entire day being messed with by mobsters. Zari’s not sure how many times Nate had to steel up in the twenty-four hours it took her to get him out of there, but he’s looked like hell ever since.

“You know, this would be so much easier if Sara would just ask Ava to get a new time core,” Zari complains as Nate finally comes out of the gas station with two bags in one hand and four huge bottles of water tucked under one arm. He looks like hell; she’s not sure how he’s managing to carry all that. “And please tell me that’s cold.”

“Most of their fridges broke last night and I went through all their bottles looking for ones that felt even slightly cold.” Nate throws most of the bottles in the trunk of the car and hands her one.

Then he opens the door to the backseat and sits down so quickly that Zari knows he’s trying to make her think he’s okay now when he’s not.

Zari gulps down some of the warm water anyway. It’s disgusting, but it’s better than nothing. She shoves the open bottle at Nate before asking, “Did you manage to get anything to eat?”

“We’re going to get lectures from Gideon about healthy eating, but I did get us some questionable gas station food.” Nate opens one of the bags to reveals a pile of sandwiches and some hot food that Zari doesn’t think is going to be hot.

“Gideon can’t complain about scurvy when the other option is starvation.” Plus, there has to be a vegetable in at least a few of those things. She’s sure she can see “beans” on one of the packages. And sandwiches usually have some sort of salad on them, even if it’s just a few pieces of lettuce. Zari transfers them all to the cool bag Gideon had fabricated for them before they left. “What’s in the other bag?”

Nate’s face lights up as he reaches into the other bag to pull out a tightly wrapped package. Zari crouches down in front of him to get a better look.

“It was the only one left that wasn’t stale,” he says as he carefully unwraps the package to reveal its contents, “but I thought you’d like it so I had to get it.”

In his hands is a single doughnut with peach coloured frosting and pale blue sprinkles.

“Like the birthday cake,” Zari mumbles, taking it from him so carefully that she’s sure that anyone who sees them is going to wonder what the hell they’re doing.

“I don’t think it’s going to be peach flavoured, though.”

Before Nate can say anything else, Zari tears the doughnut in two and hands half of it to him. He’s still trying to say something, his mouth hanging open, when she stuffs her half in her mouth.

Nate’s right: it doesn’t taste like peach. It tastes like a generic gas station doughnut, it just looks prettier, but it might also be the best doughnut that Zari’s ever eaten.

“Come on,” she says through the mouthful of doughnut, “you can sleep in the back and complain about my taste in music.”

“You’re usually the one who complains about _my_ taste in music.”

**five (**Himalayan mountains, 1993)

It’s just Zari’s luck that Ray gets to run around looking for fairies in some beautiful jungle somewhere, while Zari seriously worries that someone’s going to freeze to death waiting for a yeti to make an appearance. And, yes, no matter how many times Nate complains that the articles all call it the Abominable Snowman, Zari’s going to call it a yeti. Abominable Snowman sounds stupid. Like someone put a curse on something a bunch of kids built.

“I don’t understand how he does that,” she says as she shuffles around the tiny tent to avoid stepping on Mick. He’s been asleep for the last couple of hours – and he’s definitely asleep, Zari’s checked twice that he’s still breathing and he’s not frozen to death. “You look like you’re going to freeze to death if you fall asleep and he’s snoring. How _does_ he do that?”

Nate looks up from where he’s trying and failing to shuffle a pack of giant playing cards while he’s still wearing gloves. The cold has turned his cheeks and the tip of his nose bright pink. “Oh,” he says, in that voice he uses when he’s about to explain something that he thinks is obvious, “he runs hot, Gideon thinks it’s because he bonded with the fire totem that time but I think he’s always been like that.” Nate shrugs. “I run cold and she thinks it’s because of the serum.”

Zari squeezes herself into the space between Nate and Mick, careful not to jostle either one of them too much. She can probably nap under one of the two unused blankets if she gets tired enough to sleep through the cold _and _Mick’s snoring. “Huh. Am I hot or cold?”

And if she takes notice of the way that Nate hesitates as he slowly puts down the cards, as if he’s considering his words carefully, then it’s just a coincidence.

“I’d say warm,” he says, and it sounds a bit like he’s trying not to laugh. “You’re not freezing like I am and you don’t need your gloves on all the time, but you’re not as warm as Mick is. Hey, maybe you can get Gideon to check when we get back to the ship. She loves telling all of us how weird we are compared to her “average human” statistics.”

Zari nudges Nate with her shoulder. “Nice save.” He’s still shivering so she grabs the blanket she was considering napping under and throws it over them both.

“I thought you wanted to play cards,” Nate says, but he still pokes his hands out from under the blanket to put the cards away.

“Oh, no, I hate playing cards. My mom taught me after we had to move.” She leaves it there, knowing that Nate’s going to understand what she means. After they were moved to a ghetto district by ARGUS. “I’m only playing because it’s something to do. I usually only play to get rid of my chores, and that’s easy.”

Nate laughs. “That’s because Ray’s the only one who doesn’t cheat.”

“I can’t believe you’re accusing me of cheating,” Zari says, but she can’t even get through it with a straight face, dissolving into quiet laughter as soon as she finishes. She does cheat. Not very much – not putting in extra cards like Mick and Sara – but she’ll slip a card up her sleeve every now and then. Nate’s caught her a few times, usually at the exact same moment that she’s caught him.

She pulls the blanket around them both tighter and watches the shadows play across the wall of the tent. Nate’s warming up nicely and between them, they’re turning the blanket into a warm little cocoon. It would be a great place if it wasn’t for the possibility of a yeti attacking them in the next few hours.

It doesn’t take long for Zari to feel her eyelids begin to droop. She forces herself awake a few times, pinching her wrist hard enough that it hurts. She can’t fall asleep on a mission, especially not when.

“Hey, if you want to sleep, I can keep watch,” Nate offers, turning his head just enough that Zari can feel his breath across her cheek. “And I’ve been told that I make a great pillow.”

“What if something happens.” Even though nothing will probably happen. Really, it’s more likely that Zari will learn how to fly than it is a yeti will show up.

“I’ll wake you and Mick up.”

Zari thinks of the gas station and the drive afterwards, Nate asleep in the back of the car, occasionally waking up to sing along to a few songs before going back to sleep.

“Okay,” Zari says, slowly letting herself relax against Nate’s side as he moves his arm so that it’s not quite around her shoulders (he _does_ make a good pillow), “but if I wake up and find out that you thought there was a yeti out there and you didn’t wake me, I’m going to make you wish the yeti had eaten you.”

“I will definitely tell you if the Abominable Snowman shows up.”

“If you don’t stop calling it that, I’ll feed you to it myself,” Zari mutters, poking Nate in the ribs hard enough to make him yelp before he starts laughing.

**and one **(Waverider, Temporal Zone)

Her phone vibrating across the nightstand wakes Zari. She doesn’t even open her eyes before she grabs it, clearing her throat before she mumbles, “Did Ava finally let you leave?”

Nate laughs on the other end. “Yeah, about an hour ago. I had to stop an ogre eating a farmer; it turns out the farmer kept destroying the shelter the ogre was trying to make. Oh, and we have a gnome now! He kind of looks like the one my mom and dad used to have, and it really creeps me out.”

“Creepy gnomes, that’s all we need.”

“The gnome’s pretty nice, but when I was a kid I used to have nightmares about that gnome watching me, so seeing something that looks so much like him actually watching me…” Nate makes a disturbed noise. “I think the nightmares are going to come back. So how is everything on the Waverider?”

“Oh, the usual.” Zari smiles. “I told Charlie that Mick can cook and now she keeps annoying him until he cooks. Sara and Ava keep making out all over the ship – I don’t know what Gideon saw the other day, but she wouldn’t let me down the corridor where Sara’s quarters are. Ray keeps hiding out in his quarters. I think he misses you.”

Everyone misses Nate. Zari misses having someone to talk to on stupid missions when there’s nothing to really do and Mick doesn’t want to talk or he wants to sleep, or Ray wants to read, or Charlie keeps complaining or trying to start an argument just because she can, or Sara wants to talk about feelings.

“But enough about that, please tell me the Bureau is getting better at finding the fugitives so that we don’t have to keep wasting our time on surveillance.”

“Of course they’re getting better. I’m training them, remember. There are a few promising agents, too. They’d make great Legends.”

Zari realises as she listens to Nate talk about what’s been happening around the Bureau and “his” agents, it’s more than that. She doesn’t just want Nate around to talk to, she wants him around. She’ll happily sit in silence with him for hours, or drive halfway across the country with him asleep in the back of the car, or share food with him.

There’s a sound in the background and Nate groans.

“That’s my other phone,” he says apologetically. “Ava. Can I call you when I get in tomorrow?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” It shouldn’t be. She’s supposed to be off the ship all tomorrow, stuck with Mick in some boring old house that may or may not be occupied by a ghoul. But she likes talking to Nate. She misses spending time with him. And what’s wrong with that?

Other than the obvious.

Zari waits until she’s sure that Nate’s hung up before she moves her phone away from her face.

“Oh, this is not good.”


End file.
